Poornima is a software engineer and entrepreneur. She was one of the first engineers at Mint.com, a startup, which was acquired by Intuit. She graduated from Duke University with double major in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Poornima has been a devoted yogini for the past 6 years and competes in Bikram Yoga. Through consulting with local studios looking to improve their management practices, she decided to create BizeeBee. Learn more about BizeeBee

Popular Pitfall When Pricing Services

Despite the size of people’s bank accounts, everyone is sensitive to price because we all want a fair exchange of values.  The price point of a service such as a yoga or personal training session, or a dance class is the first indicator of value.  As a business owner who has members you’re probably wondering [...]

After the Groupon

Using a Groupon or daily deal site is one way of attracting a lot of prospective members to your business.  I say prospective because many may never become actual members.  Too many are attracted to just trying something new or the price tag, but don’t want to pay full price for a service nor are [...]

What I’ve learned from Small Businesses in 2011

In 2011 the recession has taken a toll on many jobs, and layoffs continue to plague millions of Americans.  Fortunately Americans are optimistic and despite the troubled times worldwide, many individuals have decided to take matters into their own hands and start their own business this year.  It has been very enlightening for me to [...]

Have an Emergency Plan

Contingencies for Emergencies I have two studios that I frequent weekly, and in the past month they both experienced heating issues. The owners are thoughtful people, one has been in business for a few months and another for several years.  They both handled their circumstance well.  A few customers were annoyed by the inconvenience but after [...]

The Problems with Paper

You’re running around so you jot down a note, then you take attendance for your class, and at the end of the day you tally up receipts.  The most comfortable thing to use to perform all these tasks is paper.  But have you stopped to think how much paper is costing you?  I don’t mean [...]

7 Hidden Vendors Costs Revealed

As a yoga studio owner you know you operate an “offline” business but that you need to get “online” in order to attract more students because everyone today is “searching” for a studio.  Many studio owners hire a developer to go through the process of creating a website for them, but then the developer says [...]

Your students checkin, do you?

I’m a bit of a yogadork, I practice at a few studios around town, at home, compete, and even build software to help manage studios!  I understand most styles of yoga, postures and their healing benefits.  I was introduced to yoga through a friend of mine while we were in college, and I’ve had a [...]

2 Small Steps for Big Savings!

I know that cost is a major concern for studio owners. But the other important element to building a successful community is time!  Over and over again I see people sacrificing their time by adding up receipts, sifting through note cards to track attendance, and tallying up classes taught by instructors.  The amount of time, [...]

Good Groupon Has Done for Small Businesses

The daily deal leader Groupon and its many clones have received a lot of flack for supposedly “screwing-over-merchants”.  Most folks are taking a strong stance against them because of the way in which they take revenue from local merchants and inundate them with leads.  However, what most fail to realize is that since the advent [...]

How to handle competition in the studio business

The number of yoga studios opening up across the US is on the rise, which is great news for all of us yogis who want to get our fix!  However, the side effect of an increase in the popularity of yoga and studios opening is an increase in competition.  So unless you’re operating the only [...]